Strengthening the ties between two countries

May 07, 2011

Anisia Boroznova

Mr. Ashwani Kumar

Mr. Ashwani Kumar, Honorable Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Science &
Technology and Earth Sciences of the Republic of India is currently on his
visit to Russia from 4-9 May 2011. He is accompanied by a Parliamentary delegation comprising of
7 members representing different political parties of the Indian Parliament. In
addition to Moscow, the parliamentary delegation plans to visit St Petersburg
and tour the winter Olympic facilities in Sochi.

Dr. Kumar
believes that parliament exchanges are extremely important for two reasons;
first they help to create political consensuses among the political parties on
the way forward. “Once people are free to interact with each other, once they
understand each other once they need and know each other face to face, the
political communication becomes easier,” – he said. – “Secondly, interaction
between parliamentarians is in fact the indirect interaction between people of
two countries.”

“The purpose of my visit is to reinforce
reiterate and reaffirm the special and strategic partnership between our two
countries. This was particularly necessary because of transformational changes
that have taken place in the world. The paradigm shifted in the architecture of
global power, it requires a review of strategies and the nature of global
challenges, necessitates concerted collective action on the global stage,” –
Dr. Kumar said.

“The 3 paramount challenges,
which Russia and India share in common with the rest of the world, are the
international terrorism; nuclear proliferation and proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction; issues related to environment and climate changes, food and
energy security. The range and seriousness of the challenges requires an
ongoing dialogue between Russia and India.”

During his visit
to Moscow Dr. Kumar met Mr. Konstantin Kosachev, Chaiman of the Foreign Affairs
Committee of the State Duma and the other members of the committee. Both sides
agreed that for India and Russia, as two multi religious societies, terrorism
and religious extremism posed a grave threat. In the contexts of recent
developments in Pakistan and Middle East, both sides agreed, that terrorism in
any form and anywhere has to be jointly fought and eliminated, and re-affirmed
the need for two countries to strengthen their counter terrorism cooperation.
Taking note of development in the Middle East and North Africa, both sides
re-affirmed the importance of respecting the sovereignty of countries and
upholding international law.

During the
meeting the Russian leadership reiterated their support for India’s permanent
membership of UNSC and proposed active cooperation in regional and
international fora including G20, SCO, BRICS and UN.

Mr. Ashwani Kumar also met several
distinguished academics specializing in Indian studies and interacted with Russian
heads of the ongoing bilateral S&T cooperation programs. He expressed
satisfaction at the recent renewal of the ILTP program for a further 10 years
period.

There are 82 joint projects
between Russia and India already on the way in the field of genomics and diseases,
biotechnology and antibiotics, new biological entities for cancer, joint
manufacturing of chips for solar energy. This is to addition to ongoing
research in space programs and in the defense sector,” – he said. The
cooperation for the new research areas of biotechnology, nanotechnology, medical
science and meteorology is being discussed.

In his speech to
journalists Dr. Kumar has emphasized that India and Russia have had unique
relationships. “These relationships are encored and routed in an emotional
connect between people of Russia and India. Russia has been a friend of India
at critical moments in its history and we are deeply grateful for Russian
support”.